Rijetlan
General Information Rijetlan (/rɪˈdʒɛtlən/, native Rdžetłá /rˈdʒɛtɬɤ/, from Rdžet, a semi-historical figure, and łá "language") is one language spoken by the Cittus, a species of insect-resembling sapients from the small, cold planet Ess. Phonology Consonants * Phonetic affricates are present, but not phonemic. They are /ts/, /dz/, /tɬ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /kx/, and /ʔh/. * /l/, /j/, /ɰ/, and /r/ can serve as syllable nuclei, where they are pronounced as the syllabic consonants l̩, i, ɯ, and r̩ respectively. Vowels * i and ɯ are considered to be syllabic consonants, rather than true vowels. * /ə/ is the phone used in epenthesis. Phonotactics * C(V) * Geminated consonants degeminate before other consonants. They can occur word-initially. * /ʔ/ cannot occur before obstruents. Epenthesis /ə/ appears in a number of places to prevent certain consonants from occuring directly next to each other in speech. These rules even affect consonants on word boundaries. * /ə/ separates obstruents of opposite voicing, * /ə/ separates /h/ from other consonants, and * /ə/ separates /ʔ/ from preceding obstruents. Prosody Stress Rijetlan places primary stress on the first full vowel of a root, and every other syllable after. Intonation Isochrony Isochrony is how a language breaks up speech into equally-timed intervals. Rijetlan is a syllable-timed language, meaning that the intervals between syllables are equal. Orthography Native Script Basics The native writing system has characteristics of an abugida and a true alphabet. Each consonant has its own symbol, and a combination of a single diacritic with vertical and horizontal reflections signify the four vowels. Collation ‘, s, z, t, d, k, g, h, ł, l, š, ž, r, w, y, x Romanization Nouns The functions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns are fulfilled by nouns. Declension Affix order Possession-Compounded roots-Root-Number-Case Case Some cases can be combined with nouns for more specific meanings. * ex. škág ‘aykwes "in the tent" (lit. "at the tent's guts). Number Number is not obligatorily marked on nouns, due to its marking on verbs. The plural suffix is ''-we''. Any noun ending in /ɰ/, has it replaced with /x/ before the suffix is applied. ex. dw "god, spirit" > dxwe "gods, spirits" The accusative and vocative cases drop the vowel of the suffix before they are applied, so the accusative is -''wa'' instead of *-weha, and the vocative is -''wé'' instead of *-we. ex. Wlezwé! "O, kids!" Possession Possessive prefixes can be used on any noun. Inalienably possessed nouns require one of these prefixes to be grammatical. These include body parts and family members. The natural gender marking in the second and third person is optional. Compounding Nouns can be freely compounded in the order modifier-modified, leading to some frighteningly long words. Personal Pronouns Rijetlan generally has little use for pronouns, as its verbs are insanely expressive, so pronouns tend to be dropped. Titles and descriptions are common replacements for pronouns. The pronouns that do exist are more specific in meaning than their English counterparts, and are not a closed part of speech. Determiners Deixis proximal "this", medial "that", distal "yon" Quantifiers Distributives Derivational Morphology An agent is represented with the suffix -''ta''. Patients have the passive suffix -''z'' as well as -''ta''. The stem it is attached to can be conjugated with other verbal affixes as well. * halé "creates" > haléta "creator" * haléz "is created" > halézta "creation" There are two ways to form diminutives: a regular suffix -''ye'', and reducing a word to its first stressed syllable (more common with personal names), which is then reduplicated. The two methods can also be combined, which is generally seen as a pejorative. * slá "candy, sweets" > sláye "a piece of candy" * wlez "child, young person" > wlezye "little kid, toddler" * Rdžet > Džedžet * Šša‘r > Š''š''ašš''a'' Verbs Affix order Nonfinite-Tense-Verb-Voice-Object-Subject-Nonfinite Person Agreement Voice active, passive (''-z'', promotes object to subject), applicative (promotes indirect to direct), circumstantial (promotes indirect to subject), causative, reflexive (subject acts on self), reciprocal (subjects act on one another) Tense and Aspect Modality Grammatical mood and modality are expressed with auxiliary verbs. tentative, dubitative, desiderative, necessitive, abilitative, reportative, conditional, imperative, interrogative, negative Nonfinite Forms Derivational Morphology Syntax Rijetlan is a V2 language with a Topic-Comment structure. The topic is what the sentence is about, whereas the comment is what happens. The basic word order is Topic-Verb-Everything else, but auxiliary verbs push the main verb to the end of the sentence (Topic-Auxiliary-Everything else-Verb). If the topic is unstated, then the main verb will be placed before the auxiliary. Vocabulary Because of differences in anatomy and physiology, many categories of words are very different from their Earthly counterparts. Anatomy * body: * head: * gnathal plates: * teeth: * eyes: g-sał(we) * antenna: * neck: * breathing tubes: * dermal armor: * armor ridges: * underside: * back: * appendage: * arm/first appendage: * middle appendage: * leg/last appendage: * wrist/ankle: * finger/toe/claw: Color Conjunctions Directions *Also considered cardinal directions are up and down. Family * Numbers The Cittus typically crawl on all six limbs, but they do use their first two pairs of limbs for manipulation. On each foot they have three clawed fingers, and the first pair each have a clawed thumb. Their counting base is twelve, achieved by counting the fingers of their manipulative limbs, not counting the thumbs. Phrases Time Swadesh List Example Text